Spencerian
Script, developed in the first half of the 19th century by PR
Spencer, Sr. was a lightly shaded form of handwriting executed with either a
quill or steel nib in a straight penholder. Pens like the Gillott 303 and
Spencerian No.1 were in production in and around the 1850's with the 303 being
produced even earlier. The students of PR Spencer, Sr. and their students
together with the oblique penholder, snappy steel nibs (Gillott 303 and the
Principality), smoother papers and good inks led to an embellishment of the
basic Spencerian script into what we now call Ornamental Script. It is more
ornate and can have more dramatic shades. This form began to leave the realm of
handwriting and enter the realm of art.

Business
script developed as a means to simplify handwriting for teaching purposes and
daily use. It came after Spencerian and is executed with a straight pen holder.
Less flexible pens such as the Esterbrook 556 and 761 were used though masters
could use the sharper flexible pens like the Gillott 604EF.

Engrosser's
script is a heavily shaded style of script that is NOT handwriting; it is the
drawing of letters. Master penman Bill Lilly has said, 'It is the equivalent of
engraving on paper!" To understand this script we must trace its origin.
The progenitor script was English Roundhand script that flourished in and about
England from ~1580-1800.
It is best seen in George Bickham's monumental work, The Universal Penman. What
is important to note is that English Roundhand WAS a form of handwriting done
with a narrow cut broad edge quill. The script was then 'engraved' onto a
copper plate by a master engraver using a burin. George Bickham, Sr. was both a
writing master and master engraver.

Somewhere
over the years the term Copperplate was given to English Roundhand script. Since
the penned script was engraved as mentioned above, the origin of the term
Copperplate is not hard to fathom. The earliest usage of the term 'Copperplate'
that I have come across is from Sir Ambrose Heal's monumental 1931 volume
entitled English Writing-Masters. Today the term is ubiquitously but
incorrectly applied to almost ALL forms of shaded script. In the US, the availability
of the flexible steel pen and oblique penholder allowed penmen to imitate the
English Roundhand of the engraver's burin and developed as a slow methodical
style of drawing letters. Hence it was known as Engraver's script. Since it was
used to engross documents it was also called Engrosser's script. Interestingly,
though based on English roundhand script, Engrosserís script was NOT a system
of handwriting. The Zanerian Manual also calls it roundhand as a nod to its
English origins. Using the term Copperplate to describe the work of Bickham and
his contemporaries along with the style that evolved in the US is inaccurate
and obscures the REAL differences between them.